November 17, 2017

Obituaries

Please submit in writing to our office by 10 a.m. Thursday before the week of publication; be sure to state date of death. Obituaries of archdiocesan priests serving our archdiocese are listed elsewhere in The Criterion. Order priests and religious sisters and brothers are included here, unless they are natives of the archdiocese or have other connections to it; those are separate obituaries on this page.

Conventual Franciscan Father Kenneth Gering served as a hospital chaplain

Conventual Franciscan Father Kenneth Gering died on Nov. 1 in New Albany. He was 89.

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Nov. 10 at the chapel of the Conventual Franciscans at Mount St. Francis. Burial followed in the friars’ cemetery.

Kenneth Louis Gering was born on Nov. 16, 1927, in Louisville, Ky. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1945, and then served for four years in the U.S. Navy.

Father Kenneth entered the Conventual Franciscans’ Our Lady of Consolation Province, based at Mount St. Francis, in 1951, professed simple vows on July 9, 1952, and solemn vows on July 11 1955. He was ordained a priest on Feb. 23, 1958.

After serving for two years in parish ministry in Louisville, Father Kenneth served for 13 years as dean and science teacher in the former minor seminary at Mount St. Francis.

Beginning in 1973, Father Kenneth began ministry as a hospital chaplain, serving in a hospital in Chicago. He would remain in this ministry for the rest of his life except for two brief periods of parish ministry.

In addition to serving at his community’s minor seminary, Father Kenneth also ministered in the archdiocese as a chaplain from 1988-94 at Terre Haute Regional Hospital and Union Hospital, both in Terre Haute. He served as administrator of Most Precious Blood Parish in New Middleton, St. Joseph Parish in Corydon and St. Peter Parish in Harrison County from 1994-95. From 1996 until his death, Father Kenneth served as chaplain at Providence Retirement Home in New Albany.

Father Kenneth also ministered as the chaplain for the Knights of Columbus in Lanesville and New Albany and a chapter of the Legion of Mary in New Albany.

He is survived by his sisters Mary Rose Gaus Brown of The Villages, Fla., JoAnn Miller of Louisville Ky., and his brother Robert Gering of Mount Joy, Pa.

Memorial gifts may be sent to the Conventual Franciscan Friars at The Province of Our Lady of Consolation, Development Office, 103 St. Anthony Drive, Mount St. Francis, IN 47146. †